The parents of a nine-year-old Wasaga Beach boy have pulled their son out of school after they say he was beaten in a bathroom stall at Birchview Dunes Elementary School. The Sun has chosen to conceal the boy’s identity.

The boy used to be excited to go to school. He woke up early and was eager to catch the bus.

That all changed this year when he was beaten by a boy on the bus and continued to be victimized at school by one particular classmate.

The boy has been grabbed by the throat, sworn at, teased, had his head smashed into the window of the bus and hit in the face causing nose bleeds and his glasses to be broken. He has come home bruised and bloodied with welts on his body.

One day, the abuse was so bad, his parents took him out of school and he hasn’t been back since.

The boy is spending his days at home, the only place his parents know he will be safe, but they feel the school is not being communicative about what has been done to make the school safe for their son.

Looking back on the school year, the boy’s father says there were some warning signs. In the fall, the boy got in trouble at a school dance for knocking over some lights. The boy told his father he had been pushed.

“I just thought it was boys being boys…I wish now I had paid more attention,” he said.

In the spring, things got worse when the boy was seriously threatened.

The boy’s sister was on the bus when a boy put her backpack over her head and was kicking her in the crotch.

The boy said he jumped in to help and the other boy said he would shoot his head off.

Their parents kept both children home the next day and contacted the school. They were told there would be an investigation.

“I was very concerned about the threat that was made and the school just seemed to disregard it,” said the boy’s father.

Later the principal took the boy into his office when they boys were caught fighting at school. The boy said the principal was angry and gave him two weeks’ detention. The parents continued attempts to contact the school and began working their way up the Simcoe County District School Board administration list, calling the superintendent’s office.

The parents were assured measures had been taken to stop the fighting but they fought six times that week after the incident on the bus.

The boy’s father says there has been between 30 and 40 incidents since April, sometime three or four each day.

The parents learned that there was more aggression in the classroom and in the hallway than during less supervised times out on the playground.

“As parents we send them to school and during class you think they are the safest but that is when things happen,” said the boy’s mother.

She said the only time the abuse subsided was when the boy acted up in class, talking back to his teacher and acting aggressively. But the boy confessed he didn’t feel good about the behaviour.

On May 15, during a nutrition break, the boy went to the bathroom. In the hallway, he said he was kicked in the leg, punched in the stomach two times and punched in the head.

The boy was chased into the bathroom, where he went into a stall and locked the door. The other boy kicked the door open, went into the stall, locked the door behind him and continued to punch him in the stomach. All the while another boy was keeping watch.

A teacher came in to the bathroom to check on another student and the boy was able to escape from the stall. He said the teacher saw that there had been a fight.

The boy said he went to the sink to clean his wounds and tend to his bloody nose while the other two boys left the bathroom.

“I was really scared. I got the wind knocked out of me a couple times,” said the boy.

Back in the hallway, moments before the school day ended, his attacker pushed him up against the wall by the throat and said, “Not a word about this,” while he pressed his hand, in the shape of a gun, to his head.

The boy said he didn’t tell anyone at school what had happened to him. He has learned that it’s better to deal with it on his own.

On the bus home, the other boy took his agenda and wrote threatening statements that included swearwords.

That was the last straw for his parents. They have kept the boy home from school since that day and say their son will only return to school when the situation is resolved and they are assured their son will be safe at school.

The boy’s parents say the only solution proposed by the school is to limit their son’s movement on the playground, which is unacceptable.

After several meetings with school officials they say responses are inconsistent, conversations are being misconstrued and they can’t get anything in writing.

They say they feel defeated, like they are running out of options.

They have called their trustee and MPP Jim Wilson’s office.

Schools are required by law to provide ways for students to safely report incidents of bullying and support to students who have engaged in inappropriate behaviour or been affected by inappropriate behaviour.

The Education Act requires principals to notify the parents of students who have been harmed as the result of a serious student incident of the steps taken to protect the student’s safety, including the nature of any disciplinary measures taken in response to the activity.

Birchview Dunes Elementary School principal Bill Floyd said he couldn’t speak about specific students or specific incidents but he does share as much as he can about disciplinary action against the other student.

“We can’t go into specifics because that could then break the confidentiality of another parent. We can say that there are consequences at school,” said Floyd. “Sometimes they want more information…sometimes they want more than you can tell them and then they get frustrated because they want to know every single thing and I can’t. It’s to protect the other family’s and the child’s [privacy]. The whole thing is to keep the child safe and come up with a plan…”